Mid-week Message

Greetings!

“Trust in God at all times, O people; pour out your heart before God, who is a refuge for us.” - Psalm 62:8

Throughout the last several weeks, I have shared many different ways to pray with you. Prayer is the foundation of our relationship with God. There are more ways to pray than I could ever write about. Today I want to share one last type of prayer: voicing the desires of our hearts. Psalm 62 calls it “pouring out your heart before God.” In this prayer we ask God to help with various issues weighing on our hearts. These can be personal, or things that others are going through, or concerns that we have about the world. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to start. Here are some prompts for you to start praying about the things weighing on your heart.

If you don’t know where to begin, you can start by using the prayer resource attached to every weekly email. There are items to pray for each day of the week. You can start with those and think about what is on your heart. As you think of these things, you can start praying about them by simply naming them. Think about the promise that God holds the whole world in God’s hands, and pray something like, “God, please hold [names of people and situations] in your hands.” If you have a specific hope for the people or situations you have named, you can ask God directly for those hopes. For example, you can say things like, “God, I pray for healing for ____. I pray for peace for ____. I pray for a solution for ____.” Sometimes we don’t know what to say, and in those times, we can remember that the Holy Spirit promises to pray for us. When you don’t have words, you can say, “I don’t have words for this, God, but you do. Please pray for ____.” You can end your time of prayer by saying, “I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Psalm 62 reminds us to trust in God at all times and to pour out our heart before God. I hope that the last few weeks of messages about prayer have inspired you to try new ways to pray. I have enjoyed hearing from people who have tried new ways to pray. Let me know what kind of prayer is enabling you to connect with God, and please let me know if you get stuck. I am happy to help. May God bless the time you spend in prayer.

Grace and peace,

Rev. Sarina